


Justicar

by kepic



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:46:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28874058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kepic/pseuds/kepic
Summary: My CYOA's end up pretty insane since I like my points. This is no different.Justicar becomes a force to be reckoned with, but the price is pain. A lot of it. Once he's over it, there are only Slaughterhouse 9, the Endbringers, and Cauldron to worry about. What could go wrong?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	1. The worst day ever

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Worm CYOA 5 - Update Gimel](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/745980) by 3_tankista. 



To make it clear: All rights to characters, setting, story and central concepts in this story remain the property of Wildbow, Worm's author. This is just me playing in the sandbox. Worm can be found at parahumans dot wordpress dot com.

* * *

**The worst day ever**

_Justice turns the scale, bringing to some learning through suffering._   
\-- Aeschylus, Agamemnon, line 250.

I groaned as I woke up. My neck and back protested horribly which usually was an indication that I had slept in an awful posture. Something foul assailed my nostrils and I opened my eyes. Definitely not my bedroom. Heck, I wasn't even inside, instead lying on asphalt on some back alley. I took a better look around and attempted to rise up. After a moment of vertigo, I decided that sitting would do just fine.

The alley was horrible. Trash everywhere even though bins were right there, grime on the walls, and some unrecognizable fluids in the corners and in puddles in the middle of badly cracked and dented asphalt. The trash bins were also of the type that's never seen in Finland — I had only seen such in American TV series and movies. Which, in itself, meant that I was far from home. Couldn't really blame my mates, then.

I remembered that we had gone drinking last night. I didn't really think I had drunk enough to totally wipe the end of the night from my memory, especially as such things never happen to me, but the fact was that I didn't remember how the night ended. Hangovers were another thing that never happens to me.

So I was somewhere in North America, then. Probably United States. I had no clue how I had ended up here, unless it was a very elaborate joke on part of someone who had plenty of cash to burn. It would also require for me to have been out for quite a lot longer than a single night. As such, I doubted this was intentional on anyone's part.

I slowly climbed up to my feet. I was hoping that once I got to the street proper I'd see something that would give me clues as to where I was and how I had ended up here. As soon as I got to my feet and cleared the vertigo from my mind I heard steps coming my way. I turned to look and saw three youngsters dressed in green and red coming towards me. Their clothes varied, only the color scheme constant between them. The one in the lead was probably Japanese and clothed in green cargo pants and green-and-red denim jacket. He had some tattoos and piercings, basically looking like a stereotypical gang member. The others looked similar. The scene could have been from any TV series or book that dealt with gangs.

"Hey, whitey, how did you end up here? You're on the wrong part of the city," the leader said. The other two nodded and expressed their agreement.

"Sorry, I'm kind of lost. Could you help me find my way to downtown?" I asked, pretty sure of the answer I was going to get.

"Sure, sure. It's gonna cost you, though. Everything you have," he clarified.

"Um, I don't have much. You see I'm a tourist and, well, I've got no idea how I ended up here. Let's see," I said and began to empty my pockets. My cardholder was where it was supposed to be, in the pocket of my beige cargo pants, with my coin purse on the opposite side. I offered them to the man. "Not much there, I'm afraid."

The leader took my cards out of the holder and tossed them to ground one by one. As they were all Finnish, and mostly loyalty cards and such, he didn't get much out of them. He pocketed my debit card after inspecting it for a moment. Then he opened my coin purse, turning it over to shake the money loose. Some euros fell into his hand, with a couple of bills. He tossed them to the ground as well.

"Seriously? What the fuck is this?" he asked angrily.

"I said I was a tourist. I don't have any local currency, I use the debit card mostly," I explained.

He looked at me for a moment, thinking about something. Then he gestured to his friends. "Go search him. If he doesn't have anything else, he's gonna get beaten. Even tourists should know not to trespass on ABB turf."

ABB turf. Fuck my life, I thought. "Wait, wait. You're Azn Bad Boys?" I asked.

He looked a little baffled. "Yeah. What's it to you?"

I gulped. "Nothing, nothing. I just didn't realize I was in your neighborhood, that's all," I tried to explain. So I was in the United States, in a crappy neighborhood, with Azn Bad Boys harassing me. I was in fucking Wormverse. If this was one of those choose your own adventure situations, I'd be royally screwed. I loved my points, so I usually ended up taking some pretty serious drawbacks. Like worst day ever.

The two goons came at me, one of them most likely Chinese and the other's ethnicity I couldn't tell. A Mongol or Tibetan or something like that? The Chinese fellow was taller than me, not an accomplishment as I was only 167 cm tall, and the other was about my height and probably weight but in much better shape than me. I had a bit of a belly (from food and sweets, beer sucks). I just stood there as they went through my pockets and patted me down. They divested me of my phone but didn't find anything else on me.

"There's only the phone, boss," the Chinese goon said.

"Fine. Sorry, whitey, you don't seem to have enough to pay for our assistance. In fact, since we didn't get much out of this I think it's only fair we get to have some fun, don't you?"

"Please, don-" I started but was, in my opinion, rudely interrupted by the Mongol hitting me. I stumbled and fell. I wasn't in a good place before all this, so I had very little to draw endurance or strength from.

The leader came over and kicked me. I drew myself into fetal position, shielding my head with my arms. They proceeded to give me a beating that made me pass out. I have no idea if they continued after that but when I came to later, I was hurting everywhere. I didn't bleed all that much but any amount of moving was hell. Trying to rise up was pretty much impossible. It would take time to be able to move even that much.

* * *

It was apparently one of the CYOAs that I had decided to take the worst day ever at least twice as when I opened my eyes after closing them for just a moment I saw a man in his forties crouching next to me. He had a syringe in his hand with a liquid drop of some sort visible on the end of the needle. I could smell that he hadn't even seen a shower in weeks, and his clothes had seen better days. Personally I would just burn them and then get new ones — or just go naked.

"Tsk, you're a mess, aren'tcha?" he said with obviously fake sympathy. "Here, let me give you something to make you feel better. Might even help you get back on your feet."

I could only watch helplessly as he pinned my arm against the ground and expertly found a vein to stick the needle into. I could feel the drug travel up the arm to my shoulder and then start spreading from my chest everywhere in my body. When it reached my brain, everything came into focus like never before. I could see clearly all the imperfections of his skin, smell and distinguish everything around me. There was a sensation of peace, of time stretching to allow me to think and sense without any limit. The pain went away and I could catalog all the damage done to me clinically. It felt great. It felt like what I thought I should feel all the time if only I had the proper ADHD meds instead of going without. Never could find the right one, or a combination that would work.

The man rose up and looked down at me. "That one's free. When you want more just ask any Merchant you see for Clarity. It's new tinker-made stuff, really nice too, don'tcha think?" He walked towards the street, waving his hand in goodbye.

I had bruises everywhere, perhaps the most worrying was the bruising in my left kidney and a rather severe concussion. Clarity helped but I knew it would wear off. I just hoped that it would last long enough for me to get to a hospital. Or at least somewhere where someone would call an ambulance.

Since I didn't feel pain getting up was a question of willpower and finding the right way to move without relying too much on muscles that were bruised the most. With Clarity in my veins I managed to get up and leaning to the wall I began to walk slowly towards the street. It took what felt like forever to get there. The street wasn't a major one in any sense. On both sides there were apartment complexes that were on the verge of being safe — and in some cases I really doubted that the complex would be there next week.

There weren't a lot of people in sight, and it took several minutes for a car to pass by. I tried to get people's attention but failed spectacularly. My voice was almost nonexistent due to bruised larynx and I moved at glacial pace. Most people I saw were those on the lowest rungs of society, many of them obviously high. I walked to the direction the car had gone. It didn't matter which way to go as I had no clue about where I was in Brockton Bay.

As I passed one of the apartment complexes in better repair the door was opened and a man in relatively good clothing stepped out. He was in his late fifties, perhaps, and had short dark hair peppered with gray here and there. He was probably significantly taller than me when I could stand straight, so he towered over me as I was.

"Dear god, man. What happened to you?" He asked.

"Got mugged," I managed to gasp.

He shook his head in sympathy and took my arm to help me move. Maybe this was the extent of my worst day, and he'd get me to a hospital. The man led me to an old model Ford. I didn't know much about car models but I did recognize the manufacturer. He helped me to the back seat where I could lie down. It was somewhat nice, especially since the drug was wearing off and the pain was coming back. With it came exhaustion. I fell asleep, or perhaps passed out.

* * *

When I came to, I was in pain. Not as much as the last time I woke up but it was still pretty bad. I was lying on my back on something hard. I tried to lift my hand but I couldn't. Attempting to look for the reason I found out I couldn't move enough to see — there was something across my chest preventing me from moving, probably a strap of some kind.

"Hey! Is anybody there!" I shouted.

The man that had helped me came into my view, probably from another room. "Ah, you woke up. Too bad, now I have to sedate you all over again. Can't have you screaming too much, it might throw me off and lead to me botching the surgery." He went outside my field of vision and came back with an IV stand. To it two bags were already fixed. I guessed that one of them was probably saline, and the other an anesthetic he was planning on using.

"I hope you're not too attached to having two kidneys and two lungs. You're about to become an organ donor. Don't worry, you're going to be just fine with one each," he said, some levity in his voice. I'm not afraid to admit that I was panicking a little.

This was definitely one of those CYOA's where I had picked the worst day three times. If I had known that it was even a remote possibility that I'd actually end up in Brockton, I'd have been kinder to myself. A lot kinder.

The doctor — I was really hoping he was a doctor — was just about to insert the needles to my arm when the brick wall literally exploded in to the room. I was pelted with bricks and pieces of bricks before something crashed into the table on which I was lying. It began to topple but before it fell I saw a glimpse of a whirling hooks and blades of steel. The table fell, and I was still strapped to it, now hanging painfully in my restraints. I felt something wet going down over my chest and a new pain blossomed in my left upper arm. Hookwolf had probably nicked or even mauled it as he hit the table. The pain and blood loss were enough for me to pass out again.

I came to in an actual hospital or at least that was what it looked like. Clinical white walls, an actual bed under me, an IV drip connected to the back of my right hand and bandages all over. There was a window in the room and I could see it was night. I turned on my side, looking for a call button and found it on the table next to the bed. I just barely reached it with my right hand — my left didn't really move much.

It took a couple of minutes but a nurse came over. She was middle-aged but quite a looker still. "Oh good, you woke up. If you would be so kind as to wait for a moment, I'll go get the doctor. She wants to talk with you."

I just nodded, hoping that the doctor would come with good news. I didn't have to wait too long, just long enough to take another look around. There wasn't in much pain, so I took a look at the IV bags. Saline and something I assumed was a pain med, probably something from the opiate family if the feeling I had was any indication.

The doctor, a twenty-something woman of petite build walked over with the nurse from earlier. "Good evening. I have some good and some bad news, and some choices for you to make," she said.

"After a day I had I'll take the good news first," I managed.

"Most of the damage to you isn't permanent. Actually, most of it should heal pretty well and soon. You'll be sore for a while, and might get vertigo or puke once or twice when you get up until the concussion clears but you'll manage, I'm sure," she said.

"OK, and now the bad," I said.

She grimaced a little before suppressing it. "Your left arm, well, you have a choice to make. The upper arm was severely damaged, probably by Hookwolf if what the police told is accurate. Several of the... No, let's just say that due to the damage he inflicted, probably by accident, stripped away almost everything down to bone from the side exposed to him. We have the bleeding in control but opted to wait until you woke up so that you can be the one making the decision."

I grimaced, reaching over to the bandages on my left arm with my right hand. That explained why my left arm felt like it didn't want to obey me. "So what are my options?"

"We have three. We amputate the arm, probably from just below the shoulder joint. The second option is to make a graft and attempt to manage with the arm as it is, something that could lead to severe complications down the road. The third option is probably the riskiest. We can wait for Panacea to come over tomorrow or the day after. However, you're on the verge that I can't recommend waiting for her — you could very well lapse into shock or sepsis and die before she comes here."

My arm wouldn't get better. I began to panic. My breath caught and I began to hyperventilate, trying to pull myself into a fetal position and failing because the covers restricted my movement. The sense of being restricted didn't help much after my experience with the attempt of organ theft. I heard the nurse saying something but I couldn't make out what, then the doctor snapped something.

* * *

I saw the two entities, spiraling towards Earth that was a white and blue marble in the distance. There was a third entity, far away. I moved towards Earth, faster than travel really should be possible. The details became visible but I didn't slow down. It was like falling but on fast-forward. I hit Brockton Bay — ah, there it is — and my viewpoint was turned up. I saw a shard speeding towards me from one of the entities as the other entity disappeared, probably crashing and forming the Garden of Eden eventually. As I watched the shard approach, another one sped from beyond the entity still visible, knocking the first shard off course and crashing into me. With it, I sensed malevolent amusement, but not towards me.

* * *

I stopped panicking. It was pointless anyway, and didn't really help. The doctor was standing next to my bed, looking at me with a stunned expression on her face. I smiled at her. "So, seems that I triggered. Mind telling me what, if anything, changed?"

She just watched my for a moment before snapping out of it. "Well, we don't have to worry about your arm any longer. Seems to me you had one hell of a physical tune up with your trigger. I'll have to check but I'd say you're one of the healthiest people I've seen."

I thought about this for a moment. Peak condition wasn't something I had picked that often. I considered for a moment if anything else felt different and realized that I could sense — and probably control — all electronics from the TV in the room to the traffic lights outside. That meant I also had Perfect Mind, Pocket Room, Repair, Power Sight, Immunity, Presence and Unlimited Shard Works. Perfect Mind explained me getting out of my panic attack that easily.

I sat up, looking around and moving my left arm around, rolling my shoulder. "Yep, it's fine now. Would you take these needles out of me, please?" As she did that I considered what else I had chosen when making this particular character. Triple Worst Day Ever, check. Humble Beginnings, check. Abaddon shard, check. No identity, check. I could feel my thoughts steering towards Ambivalent Vigilantism, so check. Nemesis. OK, that I felt bad about. I had picked out Humble Beginnings for him too, so today would have sucked for him too. We both were Slaughterhouse Targets, another thing I should probably apologize for when I met him. I was also an Endbringer Target, so yay. I had Plot Convenience, Plot Relevance, Blindspot and Noctis advantages, which was good. There were also three Cauldron Vials and some Tinkertech at some point, which was also nice. I had Second Trigger versions of Technopathy and Unlimited Shard Works, so I was going to be pretty powerful. I'd have to be careful to not get too strong too fast, PRT wouldn't like that much.

That was probably my bought Strategy and Tactics skills at work. I'd have to do some planning. I had also bought Martial Arts, Stealth, Investigation and Parkour.

Damn I liked Perfect Mind already. Everything was so clear. I chuckled as I remembered Clarity. It had nothing on this.

As the doctor was finishing with the needles, the nurse returned holding a syringe. She stopped at the door with the same stunned look on her face as the doctor had had little earlier, then stepped inside and turned to close and lock the door. Then she turned back to look at us. "So another set of NDA's, Susan?"

The doctor looked at me. "I don't know. What do you think, Mr. John Doe?"

"Nah, no need for NDA's. I trust you don't go blabbing about a new cape in town and you don't know me, not really, so no harm done. So, listen, could I get some clothes? I believe it would be a bad idea to go running around in a hospital gown, and my clothes are probably beyond redemption, right?"

They both looked at me little strangely. I figured out why almost instantly. "Hey, my recovery, mental included, is part of the power package. Cape bullshit, you know?"

My explanation seemed to ease the tension a little and the nurse left, probably to fetch some second-hand clothes they had for cases like mine. The doc sat on the chair next to my bed. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked, indicating my body as I was unwrapping the bandages.

"Not much to talk about. I had literally the crappiest day of my life, culminating in the information that I was going to lose my arm unless a minor miracle happened. I also know that you have probably been instructed to ask me to contact the PRT, so nothing new there either. Might even do it later."

"Are you sure you don't want the contact information for PRT? Or a therapist? From the condition you came in I'd be surprised if you don't get at least some PTSD," she said.

"Nah, I'm fine. Cape bullshit, like I said. Now, I'm a little out of touch about the current state of affairs. Mind if we talk about stuff in general while we wait for my clothes?"

We started to go through the current happenings in the city. Gangs, their latest shenanigans, PRT responses, Wards and Protectorate heroes, what little there was in the way of independents and rogues. New Wave wasn't very active. Merchants didn't mind much about territory but held some, ABB and E88 fought over it fiercely. City politics was a mess, and the divide between haves and have-nots was widening all the time.

While she talked I listened with half an ear and focused on going through hospital security and computer systems, erasing all data about myself. I also found out that I would always have an Internet connection and could make untraceable calls by simply using a random cell within the reach of my technopathy. I also located what I assumed to be my tinkertech toys, and based on the tech I sensed moving, I guessed that Kid Win and Shadow Stalker were on their patrol near the hospital.

Eventually the nurse returned with a decently well fitting pair of well-worn but whole blue jeans, a green polo shirt and pale blue windbreaker that I decided to ditch as soon as possible as I was now pretty much immune to temperature. There was also a generic pair of cotton socks and equally generic brand sneakers in silver and black. It was a decent set of clothes, not too out of place in the city.

"Well, it was a pleasure," I said.

"Wait, please," the doctor said. I turned to look at her, waiting for her to continue. "What's your name?"

I considered whether I should answer. Why not? "I'm Justicar," I said with a mischievous smile. Then I opened the door and left.


	2. Introduction to powers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's technology everywhere, and recognizing special technology leads to special people. Evidence of bullying is also surprisingly easy to get.

## Introduction to powers

_Justice is a machine that, when someone has once given it the starting push, rolls on of itself._

\-- John Galsworthy, Justice, Act II (1910).

I left the hospital, finished erasing my presence from the cameras and other security features, and headed towards the cache of tinkertech I sensed with my technopathy. It took some work to get to it. There was no obvious way down to its location, so it took me almost an hour to find a way through the basement of an old condemned apartment complex. There was a secret door there that led to a looted workshop with random crap still on tables and workbenches. A piece of red tile wall hid a secret compartment that I opened with my technopathic abilities. Inside was an aluminum briefcase with Cauldron's almost-omega symbol on it and assorted tinkertech devices. An energy pistol, a universal lock pick, a laptop, and some tools that could be used to maintain and repair the tinkertech. I stuffed everything except the pistol into my hammerspace.

The pistol was a really handy piece of equipment. It could be set to fire various energy types with variable intensity. I made a perfunctory health check for it and found it in a surprisingly good condition. Eventually I put the pistol into the hammerspace and left the room, closing the secret door behind me. I would keep the place in mind but currently it didn't serve any purpose for me.

My techopathy didn't pick up the Wards' phones and I assumed that their patrol was over. I found my way to the roof of the building and drew out the laptop, checking its condition. It was operable, although the charge level was quite low. Being tinkertech it was quite powerful despite being down in the secret room for what looked like years. I booted it up and checked out if there was any information on the last owner. It appeared that the laptop was relatively new when the tinker had disappeared as there was very little logged activity. I archived the previous user's files and logs after I perused them. The computer claimed that there was going to be charge for eight more hours with 10 % capacity left.

I began to plan my campaign against the forces in the city. Crippling them with the information I had would be trivial, but I had to figure out how to do it without PRT and the Protectorate coming down on me with nuclear fire. The first thing would be acquiring powers, which meant meeting other capes. I'd meet Taylor, Lung and the Undersiders soon enough, but I'd prefer to have something before that. Panacea, Glory Girl, and the Protectorate or the Wards heroes would be easy when they were on patrol, although I'd need to see them using their powers.

After jotting down some generic plans and typing out the Worm timeline I decided to go to Arcadia. The school might be closed at night, but I was willing to bet there would be a computer or two from which I could get valuable information. It didn't take long for me to get close enough to connect to Arcadia's computers and sift through the data to find what I was interested in. I got the address for the Dallons and composed a list of likely Wards and wrote a dossier for each. After I was done with Arcadia I searched the area for the middle school Dinah attended.

It wasn't terribly difficult to find it. I did a repeat of Arcadia and got the information for both Dinah and Vista. After that was done it was almost morning and I headed towards Winslow. There I'd get the information for Sophia and Taylor, and would collect what evidence there'd be about the bullying. It was Saturday, so I had practically the whole day to look through the place.

On my way to Winslow my tech-sense pinged my phone. I instantly changed directions and went to look for it. It was early morning, just minutes past five, so there was practically no one up and about yet. The phone was in what appeared to be an ABB flop house, at least based on the phones and other electronics inside. Mostly teens and young adults, probably people that didn't have a home or didn't want to go home.

I considered my options for a while. I couldn't just barge in, there were too many of them for that, and I didn't yet have any applicable superpowers. That left waiting as my prime option. I did the rounds around the flop house, never far enough to lose the phone from my technopathic radius. After almost an hour of walking around the area, I found the same alley I woke up yesterday.

I looked around and found most of my discarded stuff still there, rather dirty and in some cases wet with something I'd rather not think about. I picked up my Visa Debit card and destroyed the rest with my energy pistol on heat setting. The acrid smell of burning plastic was quite unpleasant. After that I figured I wouldn't find much else and returned to the flop house, waiting for the thug to come out. I climbed on the roof of an adjacent building and sat down with my laptop, going through PHO. I created an account with my cape name and sent a message to admins asking how I'd get the (Verified Cape) label applied to my nick. Somewhat unsurprisingly I got instructions back almost immediately but decided to wait until I got my costume and some powers that would have flashy effects. Glory Girl's would probably do, I could hold a car over my head with one arm or something.

There wasn't much of interest on PHO. I took note of the updated map of gang territories and checked out the information of local capes. Not nearly all of them were relevant to the story and I found one or two interesting ones. I also got Parian's contact information which would come in handy later. After a couple of hours, I decided to put the laptop away to save the battery. Before that I checked the charge level and found it at fifteen percent. It had gone up by five despite being in use for hours. The laptop didn't come with an instruction manual, so I went through it with my senses and tinker knowledge. Soon I realized that I had missed the cover being a solar panel since it actually contained very little electronics and the panel itself was tinkertech, much more efficient than commercial models. Mystery solved. I closed the laptop and left it next to me to charge.

Finally, around nine most of the people inside the flop house were awake and moving around based on their phones. The guy I was looking for wandered around inside for half an hour or so and then came out. I climbed down from the roof using fire escape that wasn't visible from the street where the guy walked. He appeared to be alone since I didn't sense any other electronics than our phones on him. Once I got down I headed after him. I was confident that I had changed enough for him to not recognize me, so I walked casually, timing our meeting as I walked past him to coincide with an alley mouth. Once I caught up to him, I took him into a sleeper hold. I was trying to avoid permanent damage. He went down and I quickly dragged him down the alley out of sight. I checked that he was OK and then went through his stuff.

He had my phone in addition to his own, a couple of hundred dollars in cash, and a bag of weed. I left him his phone and weed. Humming to myself I started walking towards the Boardwalk. Winslow could wait and I was hungry. Besides, it was Saturday, the weather was pretty nice, and I could do a bit of cape spotting. I fully intended to cheat with my technopathy. It was unlikely that I'd be able to pick up any powers since it was unlikely that any cape in civvies would use their powers, but a man can hope.

The morning crowds had already begun to gather and several cafés were open. I picked one at random, Lord's Cup, and went in. There wasn't a line and I checked out the menu and then chose a French loaf with cheese, salad and ham, and a large cup of fresh rooibos. I was pleasantly surprised to find it here, although not so surprised at the price. Apparently African imports were rather expensive thanks to Leviathan. I chatted up the barista as I paid with the gangbanger's money, and we talked about how there was a commune in Nevada trying to grow rooibos here in the States. I also noticed her checking out my newly enhanced physique which made me feel both good and strange. It was a look that I wasn't used to, yet I fully understood why I was the target.

I wasn't very tall, but I was well-built — wide shoulders, strong but not overstated muscles, good posture, healthy skin and the graceful balance and movement of the martial artist made for a package that made one stop. Even I would have noticed myself, and I'm really not my type. She wrote her number on my receipt and said to call if I ever wanted to talk more about herbal infusions — or about anything, really. I smiled and thanked her as I went to sit next to a window and watched the slowly increasing throng outside.

Despite the general decrepitude of Brockton Bay it still got its share of tourists, many of them hoping to see capes. It was a known fact that Brockton had one of the highest number of capes per capita than almost any place in North America. I did a quick Internet search with a random smartphone and found out that only two places had more; Chicago and some place called Comstock, although the latter was due to low population in general. Chicago's claim to fame was due to surprising number of rogues and independent heroes there, although the villain population was also unusually large. Nothing compared to Brockton, though.

I took my time with my cup of rooibos and ordered another one before to stall for time. The café was a nice place to people-watch. Around nine, I noticed a special phone coming within the reach of my technopathy and after analyzing it a bit I figured out that it was of a model used by the Protectorate and the Wards. After checking out the second phone on the same person, I found out that it was probably Sophia coming to Boardwalk. I followed her progress, and she stopped briefly near where Boardwalk actually began.

Checking the closest phone near her, I found out that it belonged to Emma Barnes. I took out my laptop as I saw them coming closer and managed to pair their phones with it. It was easy enough to download their messages to my computer where I created a directory labeled 'Bullying evidence' and under it another one called 'Phones'. Then I put my laptop away again and watched the girls go past the café, Emma animatedly talking to Sophia. Sophia's power allowed her to transform into shadow state that gave her the ability to pass through solid objects. Her reduced mass as a wispy shadow being allowed her to glide. The shadow form was also extremely vulnerable to electricity. She could also take objects with her to her shadow state, and do partial transformations.

Then I got a lucky hit. Since Boardwalk was one of the more visible areas of the city, it got regular Protectorate attention in the form of publicity patrols. I hadn't had time to notice Velocity with my technopathy but I saw him appear out of his superpeed in the middle of the Boardwalk. And since I saw him drop out of superspeed I saw him using his power, gaining said power. Looking at Velocity I saw that his power allowed him to change states to become somewhat disconnected from the normal reality, increasing the passage of time for him, effectively making him faster. At the same time affecting the normal world became harder the faster he goes.

A little later I heard a motorcycle and saw Miss Militia walk to Velocity. Her weapon was a holstered pistol that changed into a sword on her hip as I watched. Picking up her power I instantly suppressed it as I didn't want a weapon appearing on my person. Her power was manifesting weapons. Simply that, a ridiculously open-ended power. It also gave her the basic ability to use said weapons and the weapon was always optimal for her to use. I didn't see any reason why she couldn't manifest an artillery cannon or perhaps even a tank. I'd have to test that somewhere.

After drinking the last of my rooibos, I thanked the barista and left, walking towards the Lord Street Market. I was planning on trying to find some better clothes, and perhaps even the beginnings of my cape costume. Not that I really required much of a one. I briefly considered using Velocity's power but it really wouldn't ease the tedium of walking since I'd be going the same subjective speed while the normal world would seem to slow down. It was also a power with a distinct visual component since I couldn't outright freeze the world as I moved through it.

Eventually I got to the open air market and started going through the various stalls. Finding decent clothes was easy enough. I got myself another set of both beige and black cargo pants, a dozen pairs of underwear and socks, some T-shirts, form-fitting black turtlenecks, and decent zero drop shoes for running and parkour. After clothes-shopping and discreetly stowing my purchases to my hammerspace I found my way to Fugly Bob's for lunch.

Fugly Bob's burgers were just as legendary as described. Probably perfect for a ketogenic diet even with the buns. I didn't risk the challenger even with my new perfect metabolism. I practiced my technopathy as I ate and spotted two phones flying my direction. Or at least I assumed that a fast-moving phone fifty meters up was flying and not thrown. The phones landed right in front of Fugly's and came inside. With them came a pair of girls who could only be the Dallon sisters, Vicky and Amy, also known as Glory Girl and Panacea.

Vicky was actually floating instead of walking which allowed me to pick up her forcefield power and her aura was constantly on so that came with it. I suppressed both powers. The forcefield would block one hit of almost any magnitude and then required a recharging period of one to two seconds. It also enhanced Victoria's strength and allowed her to fly. Fascinatingly losing the protective aspect of the field after a hit the flight and superstrength wasn't lost. Her aura affected people in one of two ways. Those friendly towards her felt awe and admiration towards her, and those hostile to her felt intimidation instead. The aura strength could be adjusted but Vicky hadn't bothered to learn to do so, believing that it couldn't be suppressed entirely despite being able to adjust the strength somewhat. Despite the aura not being strictly a master effect an extended exposure to it caused addiction-like effects, basically working as a Pavlovian reinforcement. Her aura also gave her some protection against other emotion-affecting powers. Vicky's aura was also responsible for her adopted sister's romantic love towards her.

Amy's power was biokinesis, the ability to modify the biology of any carbon-based lifeform down to the genetic level, except her own. Since she wasn't using it, I couldn't pick it up. I should probably go see her do her rounds in the hospital. The girl had been guilt-tripped into working herself to exhaustion. I fully intended to help the poor girl if I could.

I finished my burger and left to see what I could pick up from Winslow's computers. It took me a while to get there, mostly because I didn't hurry and did some sight seeing on the way. Eventually I saw the school and just looked at it for a while. It was as described, although perhaps not as bad as Taylor let understand. I mean it would probably be condemned in Finland but it seemed structurally sound and at least nothing seemed to be broken. There were some teens hanging around, but they weren't in gang colors even if it was likely that they belonged to one. Based on the fact they had hair and lacked tattoos they weren't E88.

I ignored the teens as I went to the other side of the school, intending to find my way in unnoticed. There was a loading dock for supplies with a smaller door which was rather easy to pick even without my tinkertech tools. I entered and found my way through kitchens to the cafeteria and from there to school proper. The impression of lowest-class school was even more palpable here but I could still see that for an average student this could be made to work. Although it would be ridiculous to compare Winslow to Arcadia, about the only thing they shared was that they're called schools.

My first stop was the principal's office. I took my time going through the computer and looking for paper evidence. I found some papers from the beginning of the bullying campaign when they had at least noted the alleged incidents, even if they didn't do anything about it. After last August, there was nothing which neatly coincided with Shadow Stalker becoming a Ward. I also found Taylor's request for transfer to Arcadia. Nothing had been done with it, it had probably been stuffed straight into the folder without bothering with it.

The computer showed a similar trend. There were some mentions of Taylor and her possible problems before August but nothing after it. I also found out that the principal didn't take computer security too seriously. I found information plainly outing Shadow Stalker as Sophia Hess, with her contact information including her address. Luckily I also found her handler's number. Taylor's address was also there for me to take down.

I copied all Taylor's mail accounts to my computer. I had a pretty decent collection of evidence already but I wanted to see if Sophia's handler had anything incriminating on her phone so sending the evidence over to PRT would have to wait. After taking another look around the school, I didn't find anything worth doing. I decided to leave and see if I could pick up Taylor's power.

The only thing written about today in the story was that Taylor had been shopping for her temporary costume pieces. I had no idea where she was shopping so the only sure place where I could see her would be at or near her home. So after I got within a block or so of her home I dipped into Velocity's power and stopped the world. That's how it seemed to me. I had intentionally gone for the maximum the power allowed and found out that I could almost stop time. At that speed I couldn't really move, though, as air itself was heavy enough to prevent me from moving. So I eased up a little until I found a speed where I could comfortably move around and went to check out the Hebert household.

It was Saturday afternoon, so I wasn't terribly surprised to see that Danny was home through their kitchen window. Since at this speed I could hardly move anything until I got superstrength I had to be satisfied on what I saw through windows. On the positive side I was pretty sure I moved fast enough that I was a flicker at most if I went through someone's field of view. Going around the house I saw that the basement window was open. Inside I could see Taylor fitting her newly bought costume pieces. Around her shone her Master power, reaching out to bugs out to an incredible range. I snatched a copy of her power and ran off. It was surprisingly difficult to suppress Taylor's power but I managed somehow.

I walked in the nearly frozen time until I got back to Docks proper and found a private alley to drop out of it. Then I let Taylor's power free.


End file.
